finding Elisabeth Elliot’s newletter in my mailbox. Today I got the last issue. After more than twenty years of writing a quarterly newsletter, Elisabeth says “it seems to be the right time to bring this chapter of my life to a close..”
I first heard of Elisabeth Elliot when I was a college student. Although I haven’t always agreed with her, I find I cherish her perspective more and more as I get older. I started receiving her newsletter in 1994, after I went to see her speak. The intensity, purity and honesty of her character is rare. She has suffered in her life and I admire how she has let God carve her through the experiences.
Elisabeth’s words always had a timely way of hitting my heart. She would speak to where I was. I’d wait to open her newsletter until I had a moment or two to sit by myself and reflect, to see what God was saying to me through her writing. She’s inspired me with her faith and endurance, with her passion for God and godliness, as a woman, wife, mother, and as a writer.
In this issue, I appreciated what she said about the years she spent in Ecuador:
But at the end of my eleven years of labor in that country, my labors seemed to have turned to ashes. One set of translation notes was stolen from the top of a banana truck. My Auca materials sit in my attic to this day. Only a portion of my Quicha work was useful to two other missionaries…Of course, even more insuperable that that seemingly wasted effort was the question of why my husband Jim, to whom I had been married a mere 27 months (after 5.5 years of waiting) was killed by the Aucas….God’s ways are mysterious and our faith develops strong muscles as we negotiate the twists and turns of our lives.”
Recently I felt the need for my faith to “develop strong muscles” with new twists and turns in our lives. I appreciate too her faith in God in the midst of what could be seen as painful, frustrating and fruitless experiences. I’ll miss her and Lars writings in the newsletter. I’ll miss the medicine it brings my heart and mind.
“Please visit the website ” pleads the last issue, and I’m grateful that previous newletters for the past few years are stored there.
So this post is a little thank you note to Elisabeth and Lars, for their years of newsletters.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, yes, she is the reason why we spell our youngest daughter’s name with an “s”!
1 response so far ↓
1 Katherine // Nov 16, 2003 at 7:45 am
Wow, I had no idea your 3rd was named after her! Thanks for that tidbit, very nice to know. I also didn’t know they’d been married so short a time. I imagined them older when the tragedy happened.